Jars or pails that are placed on the top bar; internal hive feeders for feeding sugar syrup and patties of protein supplement inside colony, especially during the spring and fall.
Bee colonies experiencing nutritional stress or other stressors may be helped by supplemental feeding of additional sugar or protein.
Sugar, fed dry in crystal form or as sugar cakes or as a syrup, may be provided using feeders at the top, inside (alongside frames) or outside the hive, as an entrance feeder or feed lot feeding. Various sugars are used with sucrose from cane or beets, an inverted sugar source, such as divert or fondant, or on a larger scale in the form of corn syrup. Other sugar sources such as rice are used to a lesser degree.
Protein may be fed with pollen substitute or a supplement that contains a small amount of pollen to attract bees to feed. Protein is fed dry outside the hive or mixed with sugar syrup and fed as moist paddy inside the hive, usually at the top or between brood boxes. Most protein sources are duplicated from dairy or cattle feeds with additions to keep a paddy form drying out, and they exclude milk due to the toxicity of milk sugars.
